Hopes that four Bermudians will be in the first championship round of the King Edward VII Gold Cup were maintained yesterday as Adam Barboza and Glenn Astwood both won two of their first four flights in the qualifiers in Hamilton Harbour.

But the possibility that one could eliminate the other also remained with the pair due to come up against each other in one of the three remaining flights to be held this afternoon.

Barboza and Astwood, who made the qualifiers after finishing first and second in the Black Seal Cup last month, are bidding to join seeded Bermudians Peter Bromby and Paula Lewin and six international match racing stars in the championship when it is whittled down to a final 12 crews.

The pair recorded identical 2-2 records yesterday after a day of racing in bright sun and southeasterly winds of 15-18 knots that left the qualifying competition delicately poised.

Former world number two, Briton Chris Law, forced to qualify after entering the competition late this year, and American Bill Buckles also stood at 2-2, meaning that six of the eight unseeded skippers retained realistic hopes of making the next round.

Canadian Peter Hall, in only his second Gold Cup, finished the day undefeated, while 24-year-old American Andrew Horton earned three victories.

The only female crew, headed by Britain's Jessie Cuthbert, endured a difficult outing, failing to win any of their flights.

Astwood, indeed, may have felt disappointed that his place in the championship was not already secured after he made a great start, winning his first two races.

In the first flight, he beat Law, now ranked 12th in the world, by an impressive 84 seconds. Barboza, looking to qualify for the championship for the fourth time in seven attempts, also had a successful start, seeing off the US's David Whelan by 64 seconds.

Barboza ran Law close in the second flight, with the Briton coming out on top by a mere 11 seconds. Astwood finished a similar distance ahead of Whelan.

Astwood then suffered defeats at the hands of Horton and Hall while Barboza recovered from a heavy loss against Hall to beat Horton in the fourth and final flight.

Law defeated Cuthbert by a huge margin of two minutes, 22 seconds in the final flight to grab his second victory of the day.

He needed that desperately after being forced to retire from the third flight against Bill Buckles.

Sailing resumes at 12.20 this afternoon.